I'm sufficiently jaded that I don't often get scared at the movies, but The Blair Witch Project scared the hell out of me. I still think it's a pretty ingenious piece of work. By keeping the creepy stuff mostly on the periphery, it got the audience's imagination percolating. Give me that kind of subtle, slow-building horror over modern-day torture porn and jump scares any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Also: The Exorcist, one of my three or four all-time favorite movies, and The Exorcist III. (Nurse's desk scene [shudder]).

Two movies scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid; THE EQUINOX (1970) and DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (1973). Like JB's childhood choice, both these movies sparked recurring nightmares that lasted well into adulthood.

As an adult, John Carpenter's THE THING (1982), IT FOLLOWS (2014), THE GIFT (2015), THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) and CLOVERFIELD (2008) have all elicited genuine terror in me.

Another movie that scared me silly was DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE. Come for James Bond star Sean Connery, run screaming away from the hordes of tiny singing Irishmen who want to imprison you underground forever.

Also: The Exorcist, one of my three or four all-time favorite movies, and The Exorcist III

THE EXORCIST is definitlely one of my favorite movies. And as horror movies go, top of the list. I enjoyed THE EXORCIST III. Kind of its own animal, but still super-creepy, in parts. Rightly ignores the laughable first sequel altogether.

That said, the original scared me so much when I was sneak-watching it on cable at 10 years old, I had stop at the hypnotist attack. I wouldn't get to the really wild stuff until a couple of years later.

These days, I don't get particularly scared at movies. Sure, some shock jumps here and there during, but nothing that stays with me...or 'haunts' me hours or days later.

My 17 year old aunt took me to see ALIEN and HALLOWEEN when I was 9 or 10 years old. Both scared the hell out of me. I still consider them two of the best and scariest horror movies ever made. I was a horror movie fan for years too because of these two films that never really got topped in my opinion.I know a lot of people find THE EXORCIST very scary, but even seeing that as a kid I wasn't scared by it in the least. Found it silly to be honest. I guess I was already an atheist then.

I'm a lapsed Catholic, and don't believe in demons, possession or the supposed powers of priests. And yes, just like any supernatural horror film, you can pick this one apart in about 5 minutes.

I don't believe something like THE EXORCIST can ever happen in reality, but for me, it's more about the relatively-plausible approach to the material, the believable performances, the imagery, music and sound. Even just listening to this movie gives me the willies!

2. The church has stopped doing so because of the modern understanding of psychology, psychosis, etc.

3. A young teen seems to blow this thinking apart by genuinely displaying signs of possession

4. The church relents on his position of 'we don't do exorcisms no more' and sends in its boys.

5. An exorcism ensues.

All of the above happened in real life.

Now -- of course -- the film is more filmic than the prosaic reality of the true-life case in which the boy involved almost definitely pulled the wool over the eyes of those involved, but it's still a great launching pad for a movie. Whether we, as the viewers, believe or not, doesn't make a jot of difference to the doubt that racks Father Damian. This is a man who did believe, then didn't believe, then is presented with someone awful that makes him believe again. And he's riddled with guilt over his mother.

And I may be paraphrasing Voltaire, but I think he said something like if the devil didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him, then put on a dark robe and worship a goat in a rural field in Anglesey and one day, sometime in the 70s, a girl would be possessed in Georgetown. I think.

I don't believe something like THE EXORCIST can ever happen in reality, but for me, it's more about the relatively-plausible approach to the material, the believable performances, the imagery, music and sound. Even just listening to this movie gives me the willies!

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Those that take it more as a metaphor -- mankind is satan, man without God. "Do what you want", "you will be like gods". It says Satan is the god of this world, and we are the gods of this world.

Having first seen THE FLY on a black&white TV, I was surprised the first time I saw it in color. ++++++++++++

Something that intrigues me about the film is that it's essentially a "B" movie made with "A"-level production values. Shot in Cinemascope and in color. A very well-made film, and one of my favorite sci-fi films of the 50s (and one of my favorite genre franchises, in general).

The two sequels were far, far quicker and dirtier! RETURN OF THE FLY is a rather by-the-numbers retread, but CURSE OF THE FLY has a certain macabre charm, despite not fulfilling its genre obligations by having any fly-monsters in it!

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